A Spirited Return
by Kida Greenleaf
Summary: Seven years have gone by, but Chihiro cannot forget the people she left behind in the world of spirits.
1. Part I The River

AUTHOR NOTES: Please see the movie before reading this fanfic as it deals with major spoilers from the end of the film. All characters are property of Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki. The following has been written as a labor of love, with no self-profit.  
  
Part I - The River  
  
It had been seven years.  
  
The summer holiday had begun, but Chihiro's father was working Monday through Friday at the office so the family wouldn't be able to travel anywhere during the much-needed vacation. Not that Chihiro minded. She had come to her new school as a strangely quiet ten year old, and now, at strangely quiet seventeen, her demeanor had changed little. Her parents thought of sending her to a psychiatrist, but she would simply say:  
  
"Don't worry. I'm fine. I really am. I just like walking to the river alone. Nothing wrong with that."  
  
That river was young and wild, but it was not nor ever could be Ohaku. On its gleaming banks she would lie flat, chewing daisy stems, and she would have a little yellow book under her arm. She would open it up and find a cleanish page, and she would write a poem or two:  
  
Alone in the river's shadow I rest  
  
And from its depths I hear a voice  
  
Whose resonance breaks my heart  
  
I loved you then  
  
Though I did not know it  
  
But you were of another world  
  
And I an earth-bound spirit  
  
The river sings your freedom  
  
Yet I still feel so alone  
  
And so I dream of your last promise  
  
Of, "We will meet again."  
  
Until that allotted time I remain  
  
Faithfully yours - Sen.  
  
"Trash," she whispered with a smile. "Complete trash."  
  
The spray of the water would glisten in her hair and eyelashes, blurring the page. Then Chihiro's loneliness enshrouded her and sometimes she despaired and cried silently, but other times she rose to her full, awkward height, and strode into the river without stopping to remove her shoes. Later her mother would scold her, but for now all that mattered was the constant, healing flow of water over her skin. She thought of the River God she had seen face to face when she was ten years old, who had given her a small, priceless gift; and then, unexpectedly, she remembered another river spirit, who could change into a lovely silvery-white dragon crowned with a blue mane.  
  
Looking down she saw small fish darting by like tiny silver comets in a gray galaxy of silt and stone.  
  
"Haku," she whispered to the wind and the water.  
  
A flickering of leaves in the waft of air was all she received in reply. 


	2. Part II Seeking the Road

AUTHOR NOTES: These chapters will be brief, like the images on the screen. I like writing descriptive imagery that is intertwined with angst (as all my Lord of the Rings readers well attest to): it can take me a good deal of time to come out with new chapters. Your patience and reviews (constructive, please) are always welcome.  
  
I must admit, this fic does not stem off of the quasi-uplifting end of the film: I think that Chihiro was indeed a happy and confident child, but then, as she got older, she began to wonder what had really happened. After all, as you age, you cannot depend on things like stories.that is the folly Miyazaki highlights in all his movies: the inability of adults to accept magic. In my story, Chihiro is fearful of this transition.  
  
Anyway, here's the second chapter:  
  
  
  
Part II - Seeking the Road  
  
As soon as she had learned to drive, Chihiro had borrowed the car and sought the road that had, seven years ago, lead her to the world of the Spirits. Their names she could recall as easily as her own parents': Zaniba, Boh, Yubaba, Lin, Kamaji, No-Face, the Radish spirit, the River God, the staff of the great bathhouse that she had left behind. Then there was one who was gifted two names, as was she. He was the one whose face was slipping from her memory, and now, maturing, she knew soon it would be gone forever.  
  
He was the force that gently drove her to the brink and made her seek the road again.  
  
She drove for twenty minutes. The place had not been very far. She had thought of walking there many times since, but something in her heart had warned her, "No. No, Chihiro." Then, with more conviction, a low voice ordered: "Don't look back."  
  
But she had to remind him, somehow, of his promise that had completed the cruel orders: "We'll meet again. I'm sure of it."  
  
Now, as the trees sped by the windows of the little blue car like the brushstrokes of a giant's hand, she said silently aloud, "Haku," as though his name would summon him there, beside her. Wouldn't it be funny to turn her head a bit to the right to see a boy with serious gray eyes staring at her? A boy who possessed a voice deeper and more soulful than the years on his face?  
  
The air smelled wet and green. A little sunlight snuck through the covering branches and dappled the ground. The rushing of air through the windows was like the roar of a mighty river.  
  
She drove to the place she thought her father had taken the ill-fated turn but she found nothing. There was not a sign of a road, even one that might have been made long ago and was now overgrown with life. There was, as there always was, nothing.  
  
She got out and walked around. Her sandaled feet left little impression on the springing moss. The yellow notebook felt heavy as a stone in her hand. And then, as much as she tried to suppress it, Chihiro began to cry. She fell to her knees like a child and wept her heart out, hitting the ground with the flats of her hands, shaking her head from side to side, glaring at the green world through blurry eyes.  
  
Then, as abruptly as she had begun to cry, Chihiro stood and locked the car door. She put the book in her small bag and dashed the tears from her eyes. Her reflection could be seen in the streaked windshield: she was rather tall compared to her schoolmates; her legs were as awkwardly skinny as they had been in childhood. Her hair was still a shaggy brown mess that she had to pull together with that beautiful violet ribbon a monster and a witch had woven for her.  
  
Chihiro closed her eyes and listened. No cars came by, so for a long moment she heard only the sounds of the wood. They were old and deep. She heard things she didn't recognize. She smelled plants more fragrant than any she had smelt before. There was the distant sound of running water.  
  
When she opened her eyes, the blind vision was gone.  
  
"Not today." And that was her choice. That was her power. She turned and began to unlock the car.  
  
Then there was a whistling of wind that made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. Chihiro spun around and looked.  
  
That hadn't been there before: that tiny, round, fat stone statue of some diminutive creature. And beyond.  
  
A green, overgrown road wound away out of sight.  
  
Without a second thought, she ran as fast as she could, plunging deep into the forest, the magic road opening wider and wider before her. 


End file.
